An alarming consequence of Greece’s economic meltdown has been the rise of the virulently ultra-nationalist political party, Golden Dawn. In this week’s issue of TIME, we report on the group’s tactics and ideology as well as the political climate that feeds Golden Dawn’s anti-immigrant drive.

The group is led by Nikos Michaloliakos, 54, a small, paunchy mathematician with Brezhnev eyebrows and a perpetual scowl, who founded the movement in 1985. During an interview Wednesday with the private TV channel SKAI, Michaloliakos denied that the party was trying to push the country into the left-right divisions of the civil war that ravaged Greece after the end of World War II, declaring that the Greeks had to be united to face the economic crisis. He got angry when the Greek journalist interviewing him asked about the party’s Nazi links, dismissing it as “old mud” from 20 years ago. “We are nationalists, not Nazis,” he said, adding that the Greeks don’t care to rehash Nazi history and instead want to get rid of political corruption and illegal immigrants so the country can recover from the economic crisis. He claimed that support for his party will grow because Golden Dawn is not corrupt and identifies with common Greeks.

And yet, Golden Dawn’s slogans, salutes, symbols and gatherings distinctly echo images and words from the Third Reich, says Dimitris Psarras, an investigative journalist who spent more than 20 years chronicling the party in his new book Golden Dawn’s Black Bible. “The leaders of this group don’t practice an ideology that is simply the loud ultra-nationalism practiced by other European far-right parties,” he said. “It is very clearly a Nazi group.”

Psarras says Golden Dawn has tapped into anti-immigrant resentment that has been slowly building since the 1990s when the first big wave of foreigners—Albanians—came to Greece en masse. As the economic crisis has stripped Greek institutions of trust, that resentment has metastasized into outright fear that is defining mainstream political and social debate, he said.

Indeed, Golden Dawn holds no monopoly on the idea that all undocumented migrants are menaces to society. Many of Greece’s leading politicians, including Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, 61, have said as much. Though Samaras, a patrician , Harvard-trained economist, has also described Golden Dawn as “neo-Nazi,” he has labeled undocumented migrants “the tyrants of Greek society.” He leads the conservative New Democracy party, the main partner in a fragile three-party coalition government that’s been governing Greece since June.

In Athens, where most of the approximately 350,000 undocumented migrants in Greece live, Samaras and other mainstream political leaders have accused them of spreading infectious diseases and contributing to the sharp rise in crime in the city center. Samaras has also said he’s concerned that the children of undocumented migrants are crowding Greek children out of state-run daycare centers. Ilias Panagiotaros, a Golden Dawn MP who represents Athens, goes even further and says he wants to kick out the non-Greek children. He’s already asked the Ministry of Interior for the names of “foreign infants and young children, by country of origin, who are in nursery school.” (The Ministry refused).

Many migrants say Greeceis now a hostile place for them. In Athens, gangs of vigilantes, many sporting the black Golden Dawn T-shirts, have attacked hundreds of immigrants in the last year, according to human rights groups. The gangs often single out the poorest immigrants, cornering them at night and beating them with brass knuckles, beer bottles, wooden bats–and in the case of Egyptian fisherman Abouzeid Mubarak, 28–thick iron rods. In June, 20 people broke into Mubarak’s suburban Piraeus home while he was asleep and beat him into a coma. In August, another gang stabbed a 19-year old Iraqi man as he walked in central Athens. Issa Ahmed Agboluaje, a slight, shy 20 year old from Ghana survived a similar attack by another gang in black this spring. “They put the knife in my stomach and said, ‘Get out of here!'” Agboluaje says, pulling up his shirt to reveal a four-inch scar on his belly. Like many immigrants, he said the Athens police ignored his complaint.

Even immigrants who have not been attacked sense the dramatic change in many Greeks’ attitudes. Jagwinder Singh, 38, a Punjabi Sikh and trained electrician from India, slipped out of the cargo ship where he worked when it docked in the nearby port city of Piraeus 16 years ago and then made his way to Corinth. He soon got a job at a factory that makes wood products, then received a work permit four years later. For 12 years, he worked long shifts, paid into the Greek social security system and supported his wife and two children. But a year ago, he lost his job at the factory, which downsized from 130 employees to 20. Now he says he faces angry stares when he collects his unemployment check. “For so many years, the Greeks were so kind to me and my family,” he says. “But now, these last few months, everything is different. People look at me with cold eyes. They call me a xenos (a foreigner), and say they will bring in Golden Dawn to sweep us all out of Greece.”

Human Rights Watch has documented the growing violence against immigrants in Greece and is beseeching the Greek police to step in. Jan Egelund, HRW’s Europe Director, says authorities cannot use the economic crisis as an excuse to look away from the violence. Europe, he says, must help—not isolate—Greece. “If we give up on Greece, this cradle of civilization, philosophy and humanism, how can we make progress in the Congo , or Afghanistan or Syria?” He adds, “Europe has to treat this not only as a border control problem. Europe has to see it as a systemic failure of protecting human rights of migrants and minorities.”

Friends or enemies... The symbols and the salutes that Golden Dawn is using, ARE THE SYMBOLS OF GREECE, which were stolen from the Greeks.KEEP THAT IN MIND... GOLDEN DAWN HAS EVERY RIGHT TO USE THEM! WE ARE PROUD OF OUR SYMBOLS. These symbols were stolen from the Greeks. Greece has over 3.000.000 of illegal immigrants... We have daily crime in Greece... (slaughter and rape) The previous political parties never seemed to care for the crime, or for Greece .... Nor does SYRIZA.... GOLDEN DAWN cares for Greece!!!! RACIST COUNTRIES ARE THE COUNTRIES THAT PUSH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS INTO GREECE. NO DOUBT., THEY HAVE THEIR REASONS FOR DOING SO....

I WILL ASK YOU A QUESTION.. WHY ARE THEY BEING PUSHED INTO GREECE? THE NEW WORLD ORDER SHOULD HELP THEM TO DO WELL IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES. THE NEW WORLD ORDER PUSHES THEM OUT OF THEIR OWN COUNTRIES. WHY??

Have you ever asked yourselves what is behind all this? WHY all this resentment against GOLDEN DAWN WHY? The MEDIA'S LINE IS TO ACT AGAINST GOLDEN DAWN.... BUT THE MEDIA KNOWS WHAT THE TRUTH IS... THE MEDIA GETS PAID FROM THE SYSTEM....and as for you, KitBet, I would advise you to WAKE UP. WE HAVE OUR OWN RESPECT!!! WE NEED NO SYMPATHY. WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY AND IT'S PEOPLE.

THE HARVARD..... TRAINED POLITICIANS DID WELL TO ONLY DESTROY GREECE......

personally i have no respect for a racist nation although i have been supportive of the greeks right from the start. i would not touch any product from greece nor would spend a dime in that country unless they get their act together and direct their anger at the ones who caused the crises rather than the victims of it ! it is clear that these violent acts are nothing but diversion from the reality, they can´t be doing anything but helping the banks ! or are the banks agents !

greece must wake up and stop these lunatics before losing its total respect and our sympathy !

Yes Greece has woken up... finally... and will stop those lunatics who want to sell the nation out to the bankers.

The wake up call was delivered ... maybe in a not very gentle way... by Golden Dawn.

The millions of immigrants are not the only probem but they are nonthelsess a serious problem... extremely serious To me there is no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. They are all ILLEGAL. Legal immigrants are the ones who is wanted by the country, applies and gets accepted like the USA, Canada and Australia do. These so-called legal immigrants were never wanted and never applied legally... they were just made leagal by corrupt politicians.

@KitBet We don't want the respect or sympathy from the likes of you who call our country a racist nation just because we want to rid ourselves of approximately 3 million ILLEGAL immigrants. We don't have the resources or the finances to look after ourselves thanks to the banksters and the PASOK socialist party who destroyed the country. The Golden Dawn are the only ones who the banks and agents of the banks are worried about and that's why they print these lies so naive people like you can go against them. Like I said before they post every one of these articles on their website and use them to promote their party.

We are a proud people who suffered and fought for our freedom against the Persians the Turks the 3rd Reich and in our darkest our we prevailed just like we will again against Angela Merkels 4th Reich!!!!

In June, 20 people broke into Mubarak’s suburban Piraeus home while he was asleep and beat him into a coma. People (not 20 but 4 males and one female) that were not Golden Dawn members and had personal differences with this Egyptian guy. It is common in Perama that piraeus suburb for the fishermen (immigrants) to quarrel, due to the high competition but also the generally absence of the police.

In August, another gang stabbed a 19-year old Iraqi man as he walked in central Athens. The so called Iraqi was not actually Iraqi but from Morocco and he claimed false country of origin to become "political refugee". According to the eye witnesses he tried to rob a couple of drug addicts and the male pick a rock from the ground and opened his head and then stubed him.I just want to see a similar article for the racism against Greek. Two days ago a Greek barber was stabes by aliens in St. Panteleimonas area in Athens because he the only Greek shop owner the area left. I know dozens of Cypriot female students (im a Cypriot also) in Athens that walk with pepper sprays and paralyzer sprays cause they had been tampered and sexualy abbused by immigrants in the middle of the street.My apartment building was "opened" 3 times in 6 months, and i live between two police stations. The perpetrators in the 2 incidents were immigrants and in the third unknown.My point is please try to understund what we are being through. Unemployment, high crime ratings, corruption in the public sector, low salaries, but expensive cost of living.

The main reason Golden Dawn had such a rise in its popularity is not because Greek people became racists overnight. Greeks has always been tolerant to immigrants because many of them had been immigrants themselves, but the situation became unbearable when over 1 million illegal and unchecked people demand to live in the expense of others. The official state was absent so GD actually DID SOMETHING in the form of supporting local people with food aid and providing security for Greek people in places swept by vast numbers of illegal immigrants. Maybe they did a little too much by beating up some of them but in any case you can't have a situation like this corrected without violent measures and you can't expect the young men of GD, eager for a brawl, to behave nicely to someone they detest. It has nothing to do with Nazism or Fascism in Greece, the vast majority of GD voters are ordinary people from all sides of the political spectrum that are sick and tired and fed up with the mainstream political parties that brought Greece into this financial and social mess. And not all of them wear black shirts and carry iron rods. The writer of this article is clearly one sided depicting only the negative opinions for GD

The biggest critics of the Golden Dawn are the KKE which has the red hammer and sickle flag same as the Khmer rouge who killed over 2 million people and the SYRIZA communist parties who heroes are Stalin and Chauchesku who were responsible for over 25 million deaths. All of a sudden SYRIZA who received funding from Chauchesku is a champion of Democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. When the anarchists who support SYRIZA petrol bombed the Marfin bank and burnt a pregnant woman alive along with two others where was the outrage then????

The Golden Dawn posted the SKAI interview on their website just like they will post this article and every other article that criticizes them and use them to promote their organization so keep up the good work boys because only they can save Greece from the ND, PASOK, DHMAR, SYRIZA and KKE corrupt criminal traitors.

Well said, boys and girls. Golden Dawn is not racist... it's problem is, that it is a politically incorrect party / movement. All these bleeding hearts living in the US and Canada, I want to see the reaction in your country if, say in Canada, tomorrow 500,000 uneducated, unskilled, desease carrying people show up, saying... feed me. And then 6 months later 500,000 more show up... you get the picture.

The invasion of the Asian / African hordes is not the only problem in Greece, but this invasion makes the economic problems worse... much worse. What is SYRIZA doing about this problem? Where is Mr. Tsipras to acknowledge the problem instead of hiding behind his political correctness... screaming idiocies like ...neo-nazi...neo-fascist... to anyone brave enpough to acknowledge this invasion.

If there was an election tomorrow and if I could vote in the Greek election, it would be a no-brainer i would vote for Golden Dawn. I don't agree with everything the party stands for and I am anything but an extreme right winger, but you vote not for a party you agree 100% but for a party that seems to be the best at this moment... and that is without the slightest hesitaion Golden Dawn... no wonder it's support is rising so fast in Greece.

where is the article about the albanian nationalists going wild in Athens yesterday? Or the 10s of thousands of Muslims in Athens demanding rights. All you mainstream articles are conspiring against Greece because your Jewish bosses had to make some losses over this whole debt ordeal. You want to know who threatens democracy? It's you. Nobody said anything about democracy when Papademos was administered by the troika to be the Greek Prime Minister to pass more destructive measures. Golden Dawn is the true voice of the Greeks and this is our backlash. Greece never dies.

There's nothing wrong with the Golden Dawn. What there's something wrong with is the Zionist bankers that also control Time magazine trying to make an issue out of the Greeks wanting their country back. "Immigrants," whether they be "legal" or non have no right to Greece or any other European country. Muslims and Zionists especially have neither right nor place there. Just let Greece run Greece, and when the Golden Dawn takes over and the economy improves, the crime rate vanishes, and Greece is a successful nation again, the rest of Europe will see that Nationalism is the only way to go.

In Greece they use the word "racist'' the wrong way. GDs issue is not with non-white Greeks. Greece was never white anyway. The issue is with the 4,000,000 illegals that have been coming in at the rate of about 2,000 per day through the Turkish border, in a country with population of 10,000,000, evidence found that points to the cooperation of Turks to promote muslim migration into the EU, and the refusal of all Greek governments to do something about it. To me and every clearly thinking man in Greece, this is an undeclared war, a secret invasion. European Union doesn't want to help.

WE HAVE 4M ILLEGALS, MOSTLY MUSLIM, IN A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY OF 10M. What dont you understand.

I didnt see too many protesters here in the good old US, when the Texas border was being breached, a wall had to be built to slow them down, the border towns residents decided to arm themselves against Mexican invaders,and minute men,with border agent were put in place. Then it was all good huh? Most of the people that are first to yell "racist", dont understand there is a difference to someone legal of a different race-immigrant, and an illegal alian tht came in at night through the woods. At least the Mexicans are coming to work. They dont come in to say, you infidels and you have to die.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio became Arizona's watchdog. Well we needed a Joe Arpaio in Greece too. Enough is enough.

Why was Elian Gonzales sent back to Cuba from Miami? was that racist?

Why are there immigration rules in the US? is that racist? HELL NO. Its called LAW.

Why did we have to stand in line for years to get VISAs, to come to the US?

Also article writer, Joanna Kakkisis, if you believe the influx of illegals should not be stopped, and that we should keep giving them free benefits, university tuition, not tax them, not require them to offer anything to the country, commit crimes and go unpunished, and just to receive benefits, health care and wellfare just like they have been for years now, then you are becoming the minority.

YOU SHOULD MOVE OUT OF YOUR MOM'S HOUSE, AND COME LIVE IN THE US SO YOU CAN SEE HOW THE SYSTEN WORKS CORRECTLY, AND HOW LAW AND ORDER, COMPARE TO RACISM.

@rokidtoo My sweety rokidtoo Greek people can make any job they will find...they work much more than Europeans without the same privileges and salaries but now is very difficult to find even like a worker in factory cause they are no factories here now...but for many years elite and goverments bring into country many immigrants so to made for example projects for Olympics 2004 with law cost in workers cause if they hired greeks they had to pay much more that for an illegal immigrant...So now that no jobs and no money in Greece immigrants start to kill or steal for few money so to survive.Also I 'd like to make clear that I am not a voter of GD.Finnaly I assume that now Greek nation understand what Henry Kissinger was talking about in 1974!!!But through our history we faced so many wars that one more is nothing for us!!!We will face it also, Greeks wake up, enough is enough..

What a trashy and ridiculous news agency Time has become. This simpering brat Mrs. Kakissis needs to leave her personal opinions out of her work I think. Not professional in any way.

And why is it that the Greeks can not protest being replaced in their own nation? The British are being replaced forcefully, the French, the Swedes. Forced immigration is the greatest betrayal a government can levy on it's people. And why can no one but the Israelis have nationalist leanings exactly? I cry foul.

Voting is the process of the people electing a new government.

Forced immigration is the process of the government electing a new people.

I believe the correct PC term is ultra-mega-super nationalism actually - when dealing with Whites atleast.

If dealing with jews or any none-whites, it is called -healthy expression of pride and identity- thought.

In Israel it is illegal for a jew to marry a none-jew. But that is no big deal ofc. European resisting mass-immigration that will exterminate the native European population however, that is nazism. Sure.

It's always SOMEONE else is fault,commonly the people who are different than you. Guess this is why Greece is in such a bad state. No one there takes personal responsibility and starts attempting to fix their country , you know with a plan, not discriminating against the poor and beating them up with bats . They're too busy pointing fingers and begging for other countries to save them, its saddening to see people,being poor and evil.

@jouleno Golden dawn is the poor Greeks that is defending themselves from the rich and from racist illegal immigrant thugs imported by the elite.

Please understand that this is a multicultural newspaper. Golden dawn is anti-multicultural. You are reading from a newspaper which is total enemy of the people they are describing. Not only that but nobody lies like multiculturalist. This is 2012. Certainly by now you would have understood that any organisation that protects the ethnic interests of anyone with white skin is called @nazi@

I find it funny how many of the commenters are racist. Yes you ARE racist. GD IS a racist party. We don't live in a post-racial world, FYI, dumbasses. Anti-racist =/= Anti-white. There is NO SUCH THING as Anti-white purely because white people cannot be reversely discriminated against - it is impossible. Reverse discrimination is a myth and I pity you if you think such a thing exists.

If these are the people who give Greeks Hope you are screwed. Immigrants are not the source of your economic problems. Corruption is causing problems yes and dealing with it is a fair point.

But in all reality all those supposedly nasty immigrant's are likely helping keep your economy from collapsing more than it has. They are not the cause of your problems getting rid of them is not a solution to your problems.

Political leaders around the world will play off your bias and your fears because they have no solution's. And when there is not enough of one group left to blame they just pick new targets and repeat the process. So anyone who thinks this group represents hope simply ask yourself one question. If they run out of immigrant's to blame who is next? Because the answer could well be you.

@RobertBrown Immigrants are part of the reason Greece and the entire west is in economic problems, as well as the racist crime towards native whites and so forth. But enemies are not the immigrants, who was tricked into west by anti-white multiculturalist that only want to damaged and breakdown the European society. The enemy are the multicultural puppets in power and their international banks/corporation puppet masters.

The majority of hate crime victims in USA are whites, by black. Golden dawn are these victims, that are standing up against the racist multicultural establishment. You cannot execpt people to be victims of endless racist beatings, rapes, crimes without standing up.

The CIA World Factbook makes this single reference in its detailed discussion of Greece's economic problems: "Immigrants make up nearly one-fifth of the work force, mainly in agricultural and unskilled jobs." Sounds familiar.

Unless the average Greek wants one of these agricultural or unskilled jobs, it doesn't seem like immigrants are the cause of Greece's economic problems. However, politically, it's easier to simply scapegoat immigrants rather than fix long standing economic and governmental problems.

Illegal immigration is too nice a word. It's an invasion. In the past Greks fought off invaders and will fight off these invaders as well. I wish Greece was a rich country to take care of the world's poor people, but right now Greeks cannot even feed their own family, how can they feed the Asian/African hordes?

At a time when Greeks have been humiliated, ridiculed, given the finger by German magazines, insuletd by other countries, Golden Dawn (Xrysh Aygh) comes into the picture and restores pride and respect for the Hellenic Ethnos, gives hope to the people and actually HELPS on the ground with food and clothing distribution to the people in need. At the same time the so-caled prime minister tries to muzzle the journalists for bringing to light goverment corruption. Who is the neo-Nazi here? Who is acting in a neo-Fascist way?

You are amazing dear jourmalist!!Why don't you write also about rapes with violence as in Paros island and about daily thieves that enter with violence into houses killing people just for a camera or few money?Why also don't you say the truth that Greece this moment have 3.000.000 immigrants with no papers and nobody can check them from where they are or names e.t.c?Why don't you say also that Greek people can not go anywhere without the fear of attack them in the street any time of day and kill them just for a mobile phone? Who will protect our human rights?our safety?Why should I feel like Iam leaving in Pakistan and not Greece?Greece is a small country with 10.000.000 population and now with the crisis is very difficult for us so how can we pay for 3.000.000 immigrants also??They are too many for a small country, so please stop say that Greek nation suddenly became racist!!!Cause when in Italy listen that Iam Greek they ask me even how much money I had for the time that stayed there or in Germany they look you as a thief or crook...who's the racist??A greek girl that lost her hope to leave in her beautiful and historical country,in which born Democracy, as free human being!!!!